


touch

by fifisukidesu



Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Flashbacks, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Mild Language, Mild Sexual Content, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-14
Updated: 2016-06-14
Packaged: 2018-07-15 00:29:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7197941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fifisukidesu/pseuds/fifisukidesu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"i'm going to propose to her tomorrow."</p><p>the words hurt more than he'd expected but he manages to plaster a smile on his face. all he prays for is the strength to pull through the entire ordeal of watching his best friend and the love of his life get married. apparently, even that was too much to hope for.</p><p>(in which woohyun is in love, sunggyu is misled, and eunji lies by omission.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	touch

**Author's Note:**

  * For [takakoyaki](https://archiveofourown.org/users/takakoyaki/gifts).



> for this absolute darling who motivated me to write after a year-long hiatus. love you!
> 
> cross-posted on AFF.

“i’m going to propose to her. tomorrow.”

her. right, eunji.

honestly, he’s expected this, expected it ever since sunggyu and eunji started dating. doesn’t make it hurt any less though. he barely manages to swallow around the sudden lump in his throat, desperately masking the myriad of emotions flashing through him with an enthusiasm that he doesn’t feel.

“seriously? you’re finally going to get off your ass to put a ring on the one person who is stupid enough to fall for you?” _besides me._

sunggyu lets out a bark of laughter before shoving at woohyun’s shoulder with a half-hearted “yah, respect your hyung”, too giddy with the anticipation of tomorrow to mind the jibe.

normally, sunggyu would be able to see through his façade, past the fake brightness of his smile to hear the tremor in his voice and see the light reflect off the gleam of moisture in his eyes. but sunggyu was too caught up in enacting out how he envisions tomorrow will pan out and woohyun doesn’t understand the disappointment he feels. it’s not like he _wants_ sunggyu to know. he doesn’t.

(woohyun thinks that if he repeats it to himself enough times, he might actually believe it.)

 

woohyun, sunggyu and eunji have been best friends since before they even learnt how to walk and their friendship ran thicker than blood. woohyun is thankful to have them, a noona and a hyung who didn’t cast him aside even when those his age did. he’d been a late bloomer, short and chubby even in his first year in middle school where other boys his age were shaping out and shooting up, spurred on by puberty and the sudden urge to impress. woohyun was teased mercilessly, but he didn’t care. they were just words and woohyun had gotten quite good at shutting them out, especially when he thinks about going to the playground after school where eunji noona and sunggyu hyung would greet him with ice cream and stories of their day at school.

it’d been just like any other day, woohyun is sitting on the swing at the playground, waiting for sunggyu hyung and eunji noona to show up. they are running slightly late, but woohyun doesn’t worry about it too much, sometimes their teachers will hold them up or they get caught up in a meeting. it happens. which is also why woohyun chooses to wait at the playground instead of at the school gates; he doesn’t want to stand there and have all the students staring at him, judging him, as he waits for them to come down.

it is then that woohyun makes out a group of boys coming up the pathway, joking and wrestling with each other. as they get closer, woohyun notices that they are from his class, he frowns and looks away from them. he doesn’t want to draw attention to himself.

sadly, luck isn’t always on his side.

“well, well, well. what do we have here?” jungshin, the self-proclaimed leader of the group, breaks away from the boys to move closer to woohyun.

woohyun chooses to ignore him, thinking that they would just leave once they realise that they wouldn’t be getting a reaction out of him. it’d been the exact opposite.

“aw, come on. is this how you treat your friends?” woohyun barely suppresses the urge to roll his eyes. his lack of response is starting to get on jungshin’s nerves and the boy leans down to stare woohyun in the eyes, gripping onto the chains of the swing right above woohyun’s hands.

“yah, look at me when i’m talking to you. or do you not hear me under the layers of your fat?” jungshin sneers and the group of boys guffaw loudly.

_they are just words. they are just words. they are just words. they don’t affect me. they are just words._

a hand gripping onto his chin startles a gasp out of him and his gaze snaps up to meet jungshin’s narrowed one.

“fucking answer me when i ask you a question.” and woohyun couldn’t help the tears that gathers at the corners of his eyes. it’s fine when he is able to keep his head bowed, to replace the teasing jeers with thoughts of eunji noona and sunggyu hyung. but here, being forced to watch them laugh at him at the place that’s supposed to be his escape, where eunji noona and sunggyu hyung aren’t here–

woohyun feels the lump in his throat expand and he bites down on his lip to keep from making any noise.

“oh boohoo, looks like we made woohyunnie cry–“ jungshin isn’t able to finish his sentence before he is pulled away from the swing. the sudden movement caused the swing to sway and woohyun looks up to see his sunggyu hyung holding jungshin by the scruff of his neck, eyes narrowed and lips curled into a snarl.

“s-s-sunbae-ni-nim?” sunggyu’s free hand clenches into a tight fist and jungshin whimpers while cowering away from sunggyu as much as he could in his position.

“i don’t know any hoobaes who would bully my dongsaeng. if i ever catch you again, i won’t let it go so easily. now get lost.”

he lets go of jungshin, not sparing the boy a second glance as he turns towards woohyun. his expression softens immediately as he approaches the swing.

“hey, are you okay?” woohyun tears his eyes away from the retreating backs of the group of boys to look up sunggyu. the afternoon sun is framing the older like a halo and the gentle smile on his face makes him look like an angel. woohyun feels his heart skip a beat and he has this inexplicable urge to look away.

(it is only later that he realises, that that was the moment he fell for sunggyu.)

“y-yeah.” sunggyu gives a small chuckle at his seemingly dazed state, assuming that he must still be affected by what had just happened. he ruffles woohyun’s hair gently before leaning down to wrap one arm around him, free hand going up to thumb away the moisture rimming his eyes.

“it’s okay, i’m here now. i promise i will never let you get hurt, okay?” woohyun gives a small smile as he curls his pinkie around sunggyu’s. movement out of the corner of his eyes catches his attention and he lifts his gaze to see eunji standing there, clutching onto three ice cream bars as she watches the scene in front of her. there’s a flicker of something in her eyes that is gone as soon as it appeared and she’s walking up to them with her usual pretty smile and it’s like nothing had happened.

(except that there is a stiffness to eunji’s smile that had never been there before and when she looks over at woohyun, her gaze is calculative, like she was sizing up an opponent.)

 

sunggyu shifts in his seat as he glances at his watch. ten to seven, still early. his hand slips into his pocket to smooth over the velvet of the small heart-shaped box and he worries at his lip with his teeth. tonight is the night, the night his life changes. he doesn’t know why he’s so apprehensive; it isn’t like eunji would reject him. sure, they’ve only been dating for six months, but he’s known eunji his whole life and, like woohyun had so kindly pointed out, she’s the only person stupid enough to fall for him; this is the least he could, should do.

yet, sunggyu still feels unsettled, like there was something right in front of him that he couldn’t see.

_sunggyu’s eyes fluttered open and he squinted blearily up at the person hovering over him._

_“hey, how are you feeling?” the voice and a few blinks helped him to identify the person as eunji._

_sunggyu vaguely remembered the previous night, remembered feeling sticky with sweat, body hot and aching as he drifted in and out of consciousness. he remembered gentle hands flitting across his forehead, the cool drag of something damp and textured. and he remembered faint humming vibrating soothingly through his body, the press of something soft and plush against his forehead and the whispered words._

_“i love you— your smile, you know. so get well soon and let me see it, hmm?”_

_he remembered that slight slip and he knew that the person meant to say “you” but covered it up. and he remembered thinking, that this is the person that he loves, had loved for a while now. but he wasn’t conscious long enough to make out the person’s face, let alone give voice to this new revelation._

_now, looking up at eunji, eyes puffy from lack of sleep and worry creasing her forehead, his mind replaced the faceless stranger from last night with eunji. it had to be her, because the only other option was too terrifying to consider; that he’d fallen for—_

_he blinked a few times to clear his mind, now wasn’t the time to be thinking about absurd things._

_eunji was fussing over him, pressing her palm against his forehead to try and get a feel of his temperature. (there’s a voice niggling at the back of his mind at the touch – wrongwrongwrongdoesn’tfitwrong – but sunggyu ignored it.) he caught her hands in his own and pressed a light kiss to her knuckles, looking up and smiling slightly at the blush that spread across her face._

_“w-what—“_

_“shh, it’s okay now. i’m sorry it took me so long, i’m sorry that you had to suffer because of me. you don’t have to hide anymore; you don’t have to cover your words. i know and i–i feel it too. it’s always been there and i just didn’t realise it. if it’s not too late, will you– will you go out with me?” sunggyu felt slightly nauseous but he blamed it on last night’s fever and managed to put on a smile, albeit slightly strained._

_eunji had gone from looking confused to flushing red with embarrassment._

_“but i never– how did you know?” all she got was a wink and a sly “don’t act so innocent”._

_eunji thinks that there must be some sort of misunderstanding but she couldn’t care less. her dreams were finally coming true and the last thing she wanted was to waste time thinking about insignificant details._

_neither of them noticed the person at the door, hands gripping onto a small basin of water and a small towel so tightly the knuckles have turned white._

“gyu.” sunggyu snaps out of his reverie to see a smiling eunji getting into the seat across from him.

“ah, you should’ve let me pull out the chair for you.”

there’s a snort and eunji is looking at him derisively. “gyu, please it’s not as if i don’t know that you don’t have a chivalrous bone in you. i’ve already accepted you so you don’t have to pretend to be a gentleman.”

_“seriously? you’re finally going to get off your ass to put a ring on the one person who is stupid enough to fall for you?”_

_yes, yes i am._

sunggyu takes a deep breath before he reaches into his pocket to pull out the little velvet box nestled there. he stares at it for a moment before steeling his nerves and plopping it onto the table in front of eunji. 

“…what is this?” there is an edge of suspicion in her tone but sunggyu can see the spark of hope in her eyes.

he struggles to maintain a straight face as he gestures at the box. “open it.”

eunji eyes him for a moment before she reaches for the box, turning it over in her hands before slowly opening it. the startled “oh”, the way she bites her lip to stop the growing grin are all very endearing and sunggyu has to keep from laughing out loud when she looks up at him with eyes wide and glittering, the “is this what i think it is” unspoken but loud and clear nonetheless.

“you don’t want it?” eunji immediately pulls the box towards her, cradling it against her bosom as she glares resentfully at sunggyu before she holds it out towards him.

“won’t you at least put it on for me? you didn’t even ask me the question.” the hint of petulance pulls a soft chuckle out of him.

“why should i even ask? you’re just going to say yes anyway.” he takes the box despite his words, pulling out the simple white-gold band inlaid with two small diamonds and slipping it onto her ring finger. he holds her hand for a moment, staring at the ring on her finger, wondering why he still feels strangely bereft. shaking his head slightly, sunggyu casts those thoughts away as he looks up at eunji with tears welling up in her eyes and a grin spreading across her face; he’s finally moving onto the next stage of his life, just as he should.

that night, when sunggyu goes back to the apartment he shares with woohyun, there is a strange squeeze in his chest as he walks past woohyun’s room. he blames it on the fact that he will have to move out soon, what with getting married and all; he’s just going to miss his best friend.

 

sunggyu shifts restlessly in his spot as he waits, feeling a sense of déjà vu as he lifts his hand to catch a glimpse at his wrist, clicking his tongue when he sees that he wasn’t wearing a watch. right. eunji had said that a watch would spoil the whole “prince charming” look, whatever that means. (though he admits that it is quite ridiculous to wear a watch to your own wedding.) he huffs out a breath of air, scanning the guests sitting on the pews as he fingers at his bow tie. his eyes land on a young man sitting in the second row, dressed smartly in a black suit, red tie adding just the right splash of colour to the ensemble.

woohyun.

sunggyu’s breath catches when the younger meets his gaze, giving him a small smile and a thumbs-up. sunggyu gives a brief nod before looking away, that strange feeling in his chest making itself known once more. he has learnt to convince himself that these strange stirrings are due to the guilt he feels towards woohyun. ever since he and eunji started dating, they have been spending considerably less time with woohyun and he’s just feeling guilty towards his best friend. (or so he’d been telling himself.) he fiddles with his bow tie again, staring unseeingly at the large oak doors across the length of red carpet, his mind bringing him back to a month ago.

_sunggyu stood in front of the full-length mirror, eyeing the white suit he’d donned. he turned around and was met with a bemused woohyun lounging on the couch placed outside the fitting area._

_“this suit makes me look like a pansy.”_

_woohyun laughed as he stood up and sunggyu felt the corners of his lips tugging upwards unconsciously. he walked over to stand before him, hands reaching for the ends of the bow tie hanging undone around his neck._

_“i can’t believe you still don’t know how to tie a bow tie.” sunggyu gave him a mock glare but remained silent as woohyun’s deft fingers made quick work of the white satin strip._

_“you look great, just like a prince.” and sunggyu froze, not just at the raw sincerity in woohyun’s voice but at the gentle hands adjusting his collar, accidental brushes of skin against skin and fitsfitsfitsfits—_

_“mr kim? ms park has finished her fitting, would you like to take a look?”_

_sunggyu’s head snapped up and his hand dropped from where it had lifted to…what? what had he wanted to do? he turned back only to be greeted with the sight of woohyun on the phone, back turned to him; it was like nothing had happened. sunggyu ran a hand through his hair, letting out a frustrated breath as he stalked out of the room. his life is starting to feel like a huge joke and he’s the only one left out of it._

_it was only until woohyun could hear sunggyu grumbling about the suit and eunji ignoring him in favour of asking “does my dress make me look pretty” that he let his hand drop, staring at the blank screen of his phone as he tried to regulate his breathing. he’d meant it when he said that sunggyu looked like a prince, just that woohyun wasn’t—would never be—his happily ever after. and he’d been a fool to think otherwise, even if they’d been standing so close and sunggyu was looking,_ really looking _, at him._

the starting chords of the wedding march grounds him back to the present moment and sunggyu stands just that much straighter, arms stiff at his sides as he watches the oak doors open slowly to reveal eunji with her hand curled around her father’s arm. she looks absolutely stunning in her flowing white gown, made up of swathes of white silk and adorned with delicate pearls. the bouquet of crimson roses contrasts beautifully with the expanse of white and even through her veil, sunggyu can see the sparkle in her eyes and the huge smile threatening to split her face in half.

this is it, the moment where he will vow to dedicate his entire life to the person he loves. yet, he doesn’t feel the same happiness that is radiating from eunji. he wonders if there was something wrong with him. (sunggyu ignores the voice at the back of his mind telling him that it’s not just him; everything is wrong.)

 

it takes all of eunji’s self-control not to run all the way to the end of the aisle; she can see sunggyu standing beside the priest, looking dashing in his white suit with his hair slicked back and oh, how she wishes she could cross the entire length of the red carpet in one step. a subtle clearing of throat drags her attention away from sunggyu and she smiles sheepishly up at her father. clamping down on her impulsive side, she starts down the aisle with her father in graceful steps, smiling at the guests even though they probably can’t see it.

eunji scans the faces, trying to see where her friends are seated when she spots him, possibly the only person not watching her walk down the aisle. woohyun has his eyes on sunggyu, expression filled with longing and resignation. pain and guilt mingles in her heart because eunji knows, knows that this day is made possible because woohyun was selfless when she had been selfish.

_eunji exited the room after she finally convinced sunggyu that they couldn’t possibly go on a date when he was still recovering and that he should get some more rest. once she shut the door, eunji clasped both hands over her mouth and giggled softly into her palms. sunggyu just asked her out! it felt like she was dreaming but the tingling feeling in her hands convinced her otherwise. she cupped her cheeks as she felt them growing hot at the memory of sunggyu’s lips pressed against her skin. but…_

_there was one thing that she didn’t get._

_“—you don’t have to cover your words.”_

_eunji frowned as she padded to the kitchen. she might have been in love with sunggyu for a long time but she never had any slip ups where she would need to cover her words. besides, she got the feeling that sunggyu was talking about something that happened last night, and the only person who was with sunggyu last night was…_

_she was jarred out of her thoughts by the sound of something being dropped and she looked up to see woohyun watching a small basin roll around in the sink, water slowly dribbling out of it. his hands clutched a small towel, hands that were slightly wrinkled and raw from having wrung the towel countless times._

_eunji felt her world tilt on its axis. it was woohyun, woohyun who had spent the entire night by sunggyu’s bedside, woohyun who had slipped up and confessed to sunggyu without meaning to. it was woohyun that sunggyu – deep breaths eunji, deep breaths – loves._

_“—noona?” eunji blinked, looking at woohyun unseeingly for a moment before she snapped out of her daze._

_“huh?” woohyun frowned slightly before shaking his head and turning around to wring out the towel._

_“nothing, i just thought you were looking a little pale so i asked if you were feeling alright.” he shook out the small piece of cloth before hanging it on one of the window grills for it to dry. he turned around again when the silence between them got more prolonged and gave eunji a questioning look, as if to say “what’s wrong”. and eunji wanted to scream at him, wanted to hurt him like how she was hurting now. the giddiness from before was gone, all she could feel was dread; once sunggyu wakes up, he would find out that the person from last night was woohyun and eunji’s dreams would be crushed and—_

_“hyung, aren’t you supposed to be sleeping?” eunji felt like time has stopped, she couldn’t move, couldn’t even force herself to meet sunggyu’s eyes. how could she, when her happily ever after was going to be stolen away from her right after she thought she finally had it in her grasp?_

_“ah, i guess i slept too much, i couldn’t really go back to sleep so i thought i’d come and find some food. by the way, where were you last night? did you know that i had a fever? what if i had been alone and died from the fever huh? don’t you care for your hyung?” sunggyu’s face twisted into an expression of mock betrayal. “after all those years that i have spent nurturing and taking care of you, this is all i get in return.”_

_if eunji wasn’t drowning in her own panic, she would have laughed at sunggyu’s theatrics. as it is, it was all she could do to keep her emotions in check and—_

_“i worked late last night; i was really tired so i crashed at a friend’s place, which was nearer to the office. i just came back this morning.” woohyun explained with a roll of his eyes as he started busying himself with making a simple breakfast for the three of them. “besides, it wasn’t like you were really alone…” he jerked his chin in eunji’s direction with a sly smirk._

_at the mention of eunji’s name, sunggyu seemed to light up (though there was a shadow in his eyes when he looks at woohyun that eunji doesn’t see) and he walked over to wrap his arm around her shoulders._

_“well, eunji did take really good care of me last night. and…she’s agreed to go out with me.” sunggyu was beaming as he spilled the news._

_sunggyu didn’t notice woohyun stilling for a moment nor did he notice the strain in woohyun’s voice when he congratulated them. but eunji did, and she was still in disbelief. why would he… before she had the time to question woohyun about it, he had shooed the both of them out with orders to not disturb a chef at work._

_even after that day, whenever eunji tried to talk to woohyun, he always seemed to be able to find an excuse to escape. after a while, she’d just given up, and this incident lay buried at the back of her mind, forgotten, muffled by layers of new memories of sunggyu and her._

until now. 

as she walks down the aisle, the memory of that day flashes at the forefront of her mind and the closer she got to sunggyu, the clearer the poorly disguised anguish on woohyun’s face becomes. each step she takes seems to twist the guilt that much deeper into her gut until she feels like she can’t take another step. she is walking towards her dream come true, her happily ever after, but would she be truly happy? would she be able to fully enjoy the rest of her life by sunggyu’s side knowing that their happiness is built on lies and pain? that woohyun would forever be trapped in a love that was deprived of a chance of ever being returned?

tearing her eyes away from woohyun, eunji faces forward with her chin held high. she has made her decision and she is going to go through with it till the end, no regrets.

she is done being a coward.

 

the afternoon sun is filtering in through the coloured glass lining the walls of the church and it’s like a rainbow-coloured hue has settled over the interior. all the guests have their gazes fixed on the beautiful bride walking down the aisle, white silk swishing all around her as she moves towards her dashing groom. it’s like a fairy tale; after overcoming all the obstacles in their path, their love has prevailed, pure and true, and here they stand before the eyes of those closest to them to swear their lives to each other. it’s romantic and beautiful and the smiles on the guests’ faces reflect the happiness exuded by the couple. all but one.

woohyun feels utterly miserable.

breathing seems to get increasingly difficult as the ceremony progresses and his heart breaks that much more with each step eunji takes. he doesn’t know what hurts more; watching the man he loves waiting to swear his life to another or the fact that that person could have been him, that he had given up before he even tried and—

fuck.

if he keeps thinking like that, thinking about how that should be him, not eunji, he’s— he might do something stupid like stand up when the priest says “speak now or forever hold your peace”.

oh god. what if he does that? what if he can’t control himself? woohyun can feel himself shaking. he might ruin this, ruin the happiness that eunji and sunggyu deserve.

 _fuckfuckfuck._ he can’t let this happen, can’t let anything ruin this. he can’t.

woohyun stands up shakily and passes over the legs of those sitting in the same pew as him, earning only a few annoyed looks before stealing out of the church through the small door at the back. he is glad that most of the attention in the room is on eunji. he hadn’t dared look at sunggyu but he is pretty certain that his eyes wouldn’t have left eunji for even the barest of a second. (it has always been said that the moment your bride walks down the aisle towards you, it would be as if an angel has descended from heaven; sunggyu wouldn’t be able to look away even if he wanted to.)

woohyun closes the door as silently as he could and stays there for a moment, forehead pressed against glossy wood as he listens to the ending notes of the wedding march. his hands are trembling and it reflects how he is shaking apart on the inside with each breath he takes. woohyun pushes off the door and starts walking, stuffing his hands into his pockets as the last note of the march reverberates around him, muffled as it is.

his feet pull his body in a direction that seems random, but woohyun thinks he knows where he would end up. it’s the only place that offers him reprieve; his only escape.

 

eunji has reached the end of the aisle and her father had clasped sunggyu’s hand over hers, silently entrusting his only daughter to the boy he’d watched grow and mature into the man he is today. he has gone to sit down beside her mother, gently holding her hand in his, fingers intertwining as they share fond smiles, memories of ‘i do’s and sweet kisses from a time long passed shining in their eyes.

eunji’s eyes follow their little interaction and her heart gives a little jolt when she realises that she probably won’t be experiencing that, at least not with sunggyu. a gentle squeeze to her hand pulls her gaze back to sunggyu and eunji sees the fondness in his eyes, sees the gentleness of his smile but she doesn’t see love. there’s no love in sunggyu’s expression, and none in his heart, none for her at least. she knows, had always known but she chooses to pretend, to ignore; all three of them choose to pretend, to ignore but all that had done was put all of them in an endless well of misery and hidden words.

but now, now is the time to stop pretending, to stop ignoring what’s right in front of their eyes. eunji steals one more glance over her shoulder just as the last note of the wedding march vibrates in the air; she isn’t surprised by the empty spot on the pew in the second row. taking a deep breath and feeling it judder in her chest, eunji locked gazes with sunggyu as she pulls her hand from his. sunggyu looks dumbfounded as his hand hovers, clasped around thin air. in his eyes, eunji sees confusion, disbelief, shock.

eunji’s heart clenches and she can hear the confused murmur of the guests, can see the puzzlement in her parents’ faces out of the corner of her eye, but she ignores it all, ignores everything except the burning need in her heart to set things right.

“kim sunggyu. there is something i need to tell you before we go any further.” sunggyu’s mouth open but eunji doesn’t give him a chance to even start, barrelling on before she loses her will.

“that night— that night when you had that high fever, the one who took care of you, the one who stayed up all night to keep your fever down,” eunji can see the way sunggyu’s eyebrows furrow, as if asking her why she would bring this up at a time like this.

“that person wasn’t me; it was woohyun. it could never have been me, i was on a flight back from america and only touched down in the morning.” sunggyu’s hand falls to his side as he stares at eunji in shock.

“eunji, wh—what are you talking about?  it had to be you, it can’t be woohyun. you’re joking, aren’t you? is this some kind of prank you and woohyun came up with?“

there’s panic in sunggyu’s eyes now and they search her eyes for something, anything to tell him that this is just a big fat joke to make him look stupid on his wedding day. what he sees scares him; there isn’t a single trace of laughter. sunggyu looks up at the pews where the guests are seated, thinking that he will find woohyun barely containing his laughter in the second row but all that greets him are increasingly confused guests and an empty space. there’s a sinking feeling in his gut when he looks back down at eunji. he feels like his world is crashing down around him and all he can do is watch. sunggyu had put in so much effort to get to where he is today, to become the respectable son his father can be proud of.

to not follow in his sister’s footsteps. 

eunji’s heart breaks at the turmoil in sunggyu’s eyes but she pushes on; she’s made it this far, she couldn’t back down now.

“you know that it wasn’t me, i know that you know, deep down. but you choose to suppress it, to bury it under layers of lies that you tell yourself because you are scared. you’re so scared of what it would mean if you acknowledge that it was woohyun that night. you’re scared because you love him, love woohyun, and you know he loves you back. you are so scared of being judged by society, by your own parents, that you’d give up your own happiness and hurt those dearest to you.”

it’s a low blow and she knows it. sunggyu has seen his older sister slapped and thrown out of the house by their own parents, parents who have promised to always be by their side, no matter what. the girl she’d brought home received the same treatment and sunggyu watched from the door as they huddled against each other in the distance, fingers tracing over forming bruises, lips pressed softly against each other. eunji understands his fear, understands his reservation, but she also needs him to understand that some things are worth fighting for.

“what about you? you love me. why would you give up on your happiness now, when you’re so close? we could have been married by now. why tell me this?”

“i want to make things right. it’s about time we stop playing pretend, don’t you think so?” eunji smiles up at sunggyu and it’s genuine; it feels as if she has woken up from a make-believe fairy tale and she can finally move forward. “besides, don’t you think i deserve better than a man who is in love with another?”

there’s a flicker of shame in sunggyu’s eyes as he meets her gaze.

“i really am a coward, huh?” and eunji hears the apology in sunggyu’s words, as well as a promise. a promise to not run away anymore.

“and a jerk. but that’s okay because there’s someone who is stupid enough to continue loving you through all your cowardly jerkiness.” sunggyu smiles involuntarily at the familiar sentence as he steps forward to pull her into a hug.

“thank you, eunji.” _and i hope you find happiness as well._

eunji smiles slightly and squeezes her arms around sunggyu once before pulling away and pushing him towards the back of the church. “now go and find that idiot before he drowns in depression.”

she doesn’t know if she will be able to find her happily ever after, but she does know that she would never have found it if she had said ‘i do’. as sunggyu disappears through the door, eunji takes a deep breath before she turns around to face the confused guests.

time to end this show.

 

woohyun rocks gently on the swing, the chains creaking loudly in the silence, as he stares unseeingly at the run-down playground.

_i promise i will never let you get hurt, okay?_

woohyun mouth twists into some semblance of a smile as words once spoken echoes in his ear. it’s funny, really, the irony of it all, because the one who promised to never let him get hurt was the one who hurts him the most. it’s so funny that woohyun starts laughing. he laughs and laughs until he feels tears sliding down his cheeks, until his laughs sound more like sobs wrenched from his deep within his chest. woohyun doesn’t bother to wipe away the tears or to muffle the sounds he knows he must be making. this is his sanctuary, a place where he can be honest with himself and not have anyone judging him.

he laughs as he cries, hands gripping onto the chains of the swing and eyes screwed shut.

he doesn’t notice the person walking up the pavement; it isn’t until gentle hands cup at his cheeks that woohyun realises that he’s not alone. his eyes snap open and he’s met with the last person he wants to see him like this, bare and vulnerable.

“sunggyu.”

“i figured i’d find you here.”

_it’s okay, i’m here now._

memories of harsh insults and gentle fingers, of promises made and broken flow through the cracks in his heart and woohyun forgets how to breathe. he can’t do this, he can’t face sunggyu, not yet. it’s too soon, the wounds too raw and the white suit sunggyu wears is a painful reminder of his place.

woohyun stands up, effectively pulling away from sunggyu’s hands.

“you didn’t need to come out and find me, i would have made my way back soon. i just came out for some fresh air. besides, you shouldn’t leave your bride alone the moment you get married you know? i mean, what kind of man are you? leaving eunji at the church like that—“

“woohyun—“

“—seriously, you’re giving your in-laws a bad impression and what if they regret letting eunji marry you? really, don’t you ever think—“

“woohyun!” but that isn’t what stopped woohyun’s rambling. rather, it is the lips covering his own that silenced him.

woohyun could only stand there and stare dumbly at sunggyu’s (ridiculously attractive) face. he wonders for a moment if he’s dreaming, because sunggyu couldn’t have possibly run out from his own wedding to come here and kiss woohyun. but he could still feel the drying tear tracks on his face and sunggyu’s lips on his feels that much more magical.

reality comes crashing down when sunggyu pulls away and woohyun sees his white suit.

“what the fuck do are you doing?”

“i’m not married.” woohyun chokes on his own saliva.

“what do you mean you’re not married?” and woohyun would rather die than admit it but there’s a little bubble of hope blossoming in his heart.

“eunji stopped the wedding and told me some things about that night i had fever.” woohyun averts his eyes at this, hissing a soft ‘idiot’ under his breath.

“so? what difference does it make?” he tries for nonchalance but ends up sounding pathetic when his voice cracks on the first word.

“it makes all the difference, woohyun. and i think you know what i mean. it’s probably why you left the church in the first place.”

the silence that follows doesn’t deter sunggyu who steps forward to wrap his fingers loosely around woohyun’s wrist. “i’m not asking you to just accept me like that. all i ask is that you give me a chance to make up for all the hurt i’ve caused you.”

sunggyu’s gaze is earnest and woohyun feels a fresh batch of tears threatening to spill.

“bastard. you bloody well know i’m going to accept you.” and the tears do spill, but they are caught by slender fingers this time. he thinks he must look really ugly with his red nose and tears coating his cheeks – there might even be snot – but sunggyu is looking at him like he is the most beautiful person on earth so woohyun doesn’t give a damn.

when they kiss again, woohyun tastes the salt of his tears mingling with something uniquely sunggyu. but more than that, he tastes new promises made and happily ever after.

_no matter how your heart is grieving_

_if you keep on believing_

_the dream that you wish will come true_

 

4 years later

“ah, _fuck_. right there.”

sunggyu smirks against the inside of woohyun’s thigh as he pumps his ring finger into woohyun, aiming for that small bundle of nerves. he likes to start off with his ring finger because he knows that woohyun likes how the gold band would stretch the rim of his entrance just that little bit more. one finger becomes three and soon woohyun is gasping and arching off the bed in that way that never fails to send arousal burning through his veins.

the whine woohyun lets out when sunggyu pulls his fingers out is heavy with impatience and sunggyu just knows that he is going to take over any second. so it doesn’t come as a surprise when woohyun tackles him onto his back while he is trying to reach for the lube, straddling his waist as he plucks the bottle of lube out of his hand. he would complain, but his throat goes dry when he sees the gleam of mischief in his eyes and he forgets what he wanted to say.

that, and woohyun’s hand, slick and tight around his dick.

“you know, i just received a postcard from eunji. apparently she’s in france now, watching hot hunky men play football.”

“really— fuck!” sunggyu promptly forgets what they were talking about when he feels woohyun sink down around him, tight and hot and fucking amazing.

“yeah. really.” he is more than a little pleased to hear the hitch in woohyun’s breath when he snaps his hips up as payback for not giving him a warning. (he’s going to get a heart attack one of these days and it will be all woohyun’s fault.)

woohyun starts a rhythm, lifting his hips up before slamming back down with his hands braced on sunggyu’s thighs behind him. this gives sunggyu a panoramic view of his dick moving in and out of woohyun’s ass and really, this is why he doesn’t complain when woohyun decides to take control. (which is almost all the time.)

woohyun’s movements become more erratic as he nears his orgasm and sunggyu thinks it’s time he took matters into his own hands. he flips them around without slipping out of woohyun and starts thrusting into the tight heat. the sound of skin slapping against skin mixes with woohyun’s moans and it’s all the encouragement sunggyu needs. his pace increases as his hands press against woohyun’s thighs, pushing them up and apart.

it doesn’t take them long to reach their climax, sticky white coating their abdomens and the clenching muscles of woohyun’s ass.

later, after they have cleaned up as best as they could without leaving the bed, sunggyu settles in behind woohyun, pressing his chest to woohyun’s back. his lips linger on the fresh mark at the junction where woohyun’s neck meets shoulder as he curls an arm around woohyun’s waist. woohyun’s left hand found his and their fingers entwine, matching gold bands glinting in the dim light of their bedroom.

_i love you._

the words aren’t spoken, but sunggyu hears them loud and clear anyway.

he replies with a kiss to the spot between woohyun’s shoulder blades.

**Author's Note:**

> i haven't ever written anything this long and hopefully it didn't bore you.  
> comments and kudos are loved!
> 
> (just thought i should mention that guests can leave kudos too.)


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